Proclaiming a New Vision for the Central Valley

With 120 congregations representing over 100,000 people in Fresno, Kern, Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties, we’re coming together with our community partners to create a different and better future in the Valley for its families and communities.

Do you agree that our community should be a land of opportunity for all?

Our Vision

Today, too many people in the Central Valley can’t find work that pays enough to support their families. Too many young people feel they have to leave the Valley to make a life. The Valley also has some of the worst air pollution in America, and it’s said that there are more people incarcerated in the Valley than any other place in the world.

Faith in the Valley and our community partners believe a different, better future is possible for the Central Valley if we work together. A future in which everyone is included, treated as sacred, has a chance to thrive and live a healthy, decent life. A future in which no one is seen as “less than” or lives in fear because of the color of their skin, their legal status, or the amount of money they earn. A future where everyone has access to good jobs, clean air, clean water, alternatives to incarceration, quality healthcare, and safe neighborhoods.

Our Founding Convention: The Launch of Faith in the Valley

On Sept. 10, 2016, 1,500 people from across the Central Valley packed the Fresno Convention Center to launch Faith in the Valley and a “People’s Covenant” for racial, economic and environmental dignity for all people in the Valley.

“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Our Issues

Faith in the Valley is a new city-, county- and Valley-wide organizing effort comprised of five multiracial, multi-faith PICO federations that are consolidating into one regional organization, building on their work over the past 15 years in five counties: Fresno, Merced, Kern, Stanislaus and San Joaquin. As an anchor member of PICO California, our mission is to unlock the power of people to put faith into action in the public square, and to advance a movement for racial justice and health equity. We seek to build relational power, lift up a new narrative about the lives of people of color, and drive civic engagement efforts that move our community priorities forward. The following are our core campaigns.

Clean Energy Jobs

Through our clean energy jobs campaign, Faith in the Valley is working with key partners to create tens of thousands of new well-paid clean energy jobs and job training pipelines for people who have been excluded from employment or struggled with poverty, and to speed up the transition to clean energy and create healthier environments across the Valley. We’re also partnering with prominent faith institutions to power their congregations and facilities with renewable energy, and in the process, challenge cities and public entities to do the same.

Live Free

As part of the national Live Free campaign, Faith in the Valley is advancing efforts to promote alternatives to incarceration and to end racial profiling and the criminalization of black and brown young people. Leaders in several of our counties have built support for the implementation of 21st Century Policing and are currently organizing for independent review and investigation of deadly force and other mechanisms to improve transparency and accountability among law enforcement.

Dignity for ALL Immigrants

Faith in the Valley is part of the LA RED (Liberation, Action, Respect, Equity, Dignity) project with PICO federations across the country, because we believe that all immigrants deserve true liberation, action from all levels of government, respect, equity and dignity. Through LA RED, we are lifting up the need for pro-immigrant policies such as health for all, safe and affordable housing, and good jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage, and we are working to advance an accessible path to legal status and citizenship to all undocumented immigrants.

Safe and Healthy Communities

Through strong multi-racial, multi-issue coalitions with community-based and labor partners, we are working to promote significant investment in disadvantaged neighborhoods and schools across the Valley and to shape land use policy to build healthy communities. This includes, but is not limited to: safe, healthy and affordable housing, parks/green space availability and equity.

Who We Are

Faith in the Valley is a new faith-based grassroots community organization in California’s Central Valley of 120 congregations representing over 100,000 families in Fresno, Kern, Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties. Our work is led by volunteer leaders who are among the people most impacted by equity issues: low-wage workers, young people, immigrants, and the formerly incarcerated.

We are part of PICO California, the largest faith based community organizing network in California, with an institutional membership of 485 congregations from more than a dozen faith traditions across the state. We are also part of the PICO National Network. Together, we are anchored in a prophetic theology of resistance that helps people understand the systemic roots of their shared suffering, as well as articulate an alternative narrative that liberates individuals and communities from the dominant cultural norms that perpetuate inequity.

In the face of escalated ICE enforcement, faith communities in Fresno and across the Central Valley rallied support to accompany and defend families threatened with militarized immigration enforcement.

In order to build powerful relationships with the next Governor and demonstrate the power and unique concerns of the Central Valley, local families shared their stories and talked about local concerns...

WANT TO SUPPORT OUR WORK?

Make a Donation Today

Join us as we proclaim a new vision for the Central Valley rooted in racial, economic, environmental and health equity for all people! Your donation will help ensure a future where everyone has access to good jobs, clean air, clean water, alternatives to incarceration, quality healthcare and safe neighborhoods. Your gift is tax-deductible and will support our work to end some of the most severe economic, environmental and health inequities in the nation.

Faith in the Valley believes that by coming together as a region, we can leverage investment in our communities across the Valley, dramatically impact policies that benefit the most vulnerable members of our region, and build the power we need to make the Central Valley a place where all people can have safe and healthy lives.